Convicted Australian drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan will not be moved from their Bali prison for execution this week, Indonesian authorities say, and it is unlikely executions will take place this month.
A spokesman for Indonesia’s attorney general said the prisoners’ transfer had been delayed because the prison at Nusa Kambangan, where they will be executed, is not yet ready.
Spokesman Tony Spontana said: “I cannot be sure how many days it will take to finish this preparation but I can guarantee the executions will not take place this month, if there are no extraordinary changes.”
Spontana also said the Australian government had asked for Chan and Sukumaran to have more time to spend with their families.
“I’m sure this week there won’t be any transfers,” he told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.
A team from the attorney general’s department had inspected Nusa Kambangan and found issues that must be resolved before moving the prisoners, Spontana said.
Problems had arisen because of the plan to execute more than five people there. “The space for the executions and the isolation cells will need some adjustments,” he said.
Spontana said there were already five prisoners in the space reserved and on seeing this, the team realised no others would fit.
“We will immediately develop this facility to make it broader,” he said. “It will take time because the breadth is five metres right now. The execution site right now is also only technically suitable for five people.”
He said adjustments would have to be made or an alternative place found.
Spontana also indicated that Brazilian national Rodrigo Gularte, who is on death row for a drug offence, would not be executed while questions remain about the state of his mental health.
“We have also received letters from the head of the Nusa Kambangan prison about one of the inmates showing indications of mental illness. He has already asked the attorney general’s office to have Mr Gularte checked at a hospital outside the prison because there are limited medical facilities at the prison,” he said.
“We have to make sure he is fully recovered before the execution.”
No date has been announced for the executions, which will also include prisoners from France, Nigeria and the Philippines.
Source: The Guardian, February 17, 2015
For Some Inmates on Indonesia’s Death Row, a Small Reprieve
 |
Guards in front of Kerobokan prison, Bali, where
Chan and Sukumaran are currently detained. |
Difficulties: From a threatened boycott of Bali, to words of concern from the UN chief, Indonesia faces pressure over its plan to execute two Australians
Jakarta. Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office has decided to put off the execution of 11 inmates on death row, including two Australian drug traffickers, following Australia’s intensifying opposition against the plan.
Four Indonesians and seven foreign nationals, including Myuran Sukumaran, 31, and Andrew Chan, 33, the Australian leaders of the so-called Bali Nine drug ring, have had their executions delayed.
“This is a response to Australia’s and the [Sukumaran and Chan] families’ demand for more time,” AGO spokesman Tony Spontana told state news agency Antara in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The AGO will not move the 11 inmates to the Nusakambangan island prison off Central Java — where five of the last six condemned inmates were gunned down on Jan. 18 — until three days before the rescheduled executions.
However, it is not clear when the executions will take place.
“The execution team has checked Nusakambangan and found technical difficulties,” Tony said, without elaborating.
“We’re now looking for the right time. The executions will be conducted simultaneously.”
After President Joko Widodo rejected their clemency pleas in December last year, Chan and Sukumaran are now among 11 convicts on death row in Indonesia who face the firing squad this year, following the execution of six prisoners last month.
Eight of the 11 convicts are on death row for drug offenses, and the rest for murder.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Monday vowed that Australia would pursue all legal options to save its two citizens from execution in Indonesia, amid reports the judges in Chan and Sukumaran’s trials demanded bribes to pass down lighter sentences.
“I don’t want to peddle false hope but I do want everyone to understand … we are straining every fiber to help these people in a difficult position,” Abbott told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the six judges who handed down the death penalties in 2006 were accused by the pair’s lawyers of offering lighter sentences in exchange for money. The allegation is contained in a letter from the lawyers to Indonesia’s Judicial Commission claiming a breach of ethics.
On Monday, the lawyers said the pair had filed a lawsuit against the Indonesian president for denying them clemency, hoping that the move would buy them more time with the AGO.
The lawsuit, filed with the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN Jakarta), challenges Joko’s decision to issue two decrees, on Dec. 30 last year and on Jan. 17 this year, denying clemency for Sukumaran and Chan, respectively, despite arguments that the pair, who have been in prison in Bali since 2005, have reformed.
“Without wanting to disrupt the president’s prerogative [to granting clemency], we submitted the lawsuit only due to the lack of clarity of reasons behind the president’s decision to not grant pardon,” said Todung Mulya Lubis, a lawyer for the pair.
He added that Chan and Sukumaran had shown significant and positive changes throughout the 10 years they had spent in Denpasar’s Kerobokan Penitentiary. The pair are regarded as model inmates and hold regular classes to teach other inmates new skills.
“The decree only said that there was not enough reason to grant pardon on the consideration part,” Todung said.
“It is unclear and it leads to a sense of injustice toward Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
“[With this lawsuit] as evidence of the ongoing legal process, we ask the attorney general not to move or execute the two. The legal process should be respected,” Todung added.
Despite the announcement of the delay, Indonesian authorities have continued to defend the planned executions and the country’s recent adoption of a tough stance on drug traffickers.
The Indonesian permanent representative to the United Nations, Desra Percaya, criticized a statement from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week against the planned executions.
Click here to read the full article
Source: The Jakarta Globe, February 17, 2015
.jpg)
